SAN FRANCISCO -- Cantaloupe Systems is offering substantial pricing incentives for its popular Seed remote machine monitor under the Seed Summer Stimulus Program. It will run until Sept.1.

While the promotion is in effect, operators will pay $99 to begin using Seed, representing a saving over the $275 regular price. The company observed that this will help operating companies deploy the remote monitoring system more quickly.

Installed in a vending machine, Cantaloupe's Seed monitors all transactions and reports them securely in real time over cellular networks and the Internet "cloud." Operators can use the information to streamline route schedules, reducing per-location labor and vehicle costs, saving fuel and consuming less fossil fuel.

Cantaloupe's Anant Agrawal explained that the company is aware that vending operations have limited capital budgets, but also knows that Seed pays for itself within 24 months.

"Our special Seed stimulus pricing allows operators to become fully deployed faster, while reducing the payback time to less than 12 months by drawing less from their capital budgets and allowing operators to realize Seed's numerous benefits almost immediately," he said.

An operator who presently uses Cantaloupe's Seed, Lance Whorton of Imperial Cos. (Tulsa, OK), confirms this reasoning. "Our $562,000 investment in Cantaloupe Systems paid for itself in 20 months by reducing our Tulsa routes by a third, from 22 to 14, and increasing revenue per route 72%," he reported.

"Not only are we increasing our overall profitability, we're reducing our carbon footprint and providing better service to our Tulsa-based customers," Whorton added. "Cantaloupe's system is one of the best business investments we've made, and we're looking forward to sharing the benefits of it with all our customers in 2010."

According to Cantaloupe, operators making full use of the Seed solution enjoy an annual saving per route of $35,000 and can visit 80% more machines in a week. This performance also translates to a 40% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by eliminating unnecessary travel and allowing trucks to run with smaller loads.